


Scientific Interest

by Raven (singlecrow)



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-27 01:12:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1709570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singlecrow/pseuds/Raven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mandatory Starfleet continuing professional development.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scientific Interest

Starfleet had a standard set of hand signals for use by officers behind enemy lines. Jadzia was signalling, _retreat and fall in; silence is of the essence_.

Kira sat down in the seat next to her and said, in a normal tone of voice, “Dax, you’re a drama queen.”

"You just wait," Jadzia hissed, and the instructor looked across at them and said,

"Can I be of assistance, Lieutenant, Major? I’m planning to give you five more minutes for this exercise, and then there will be a roleplay…"

On the other side of the room, Ensigns Hammond and Villix’pran started busily scribbling notes on their padds, and a couple of newly-minted lieutenants from the engineering corps muttered things under their breath. Jadzia pulled a finger across her throat. 

"We’re fine," Kira said, when it looked like Jadzia was just going to be a liability, and picked up her own padd and studied its blank surface intently. "You are being ridiculous."

"I am not being ridiculous," Jadzia hissed back, out of the corner of her mouth. "Kira, I am bored. I am so bored I started trying to count the ceiling tiles on Leela Dax’s bedroom ceiling. That entire building was destroyed in an earthquake two hundred and fifty years ago. I think I would prefer to sit through one of Julian’s health lectures to this. Or maybe Commander Lorik can come back to the station and give us another four-hour dissertation on subspace manifolds."

"Was she the one who talked-in-an-incredibly-monotonous-tone-of-voice-so-no-one-else-could-get-another-word-in?" Kira asked, with interest. "I think Odo quite liked her. She was both incredibly boring and a broadcast telepath, crime on the station went down thirteen percent."

"I think I can bring it back up again," Jadzia said. "Just get me a phaser and Instructor T’Phon’s notes, there’s going to be some criminal damage. I am nearly three centuries old, Kira, I do not need to attend a mandatory Starfleet continuing professional development lecture on dealing with currency-based economics. I was there when the Federation still had currency! And you” - she paused. “Why are you even here? You’re not even a Federation citizen! I think I even saw you do your taxes the other day.”

"It’s important to submit required taxation transaction returns in a timely fashion," Kira said, in a slightly louder tone of voice; T’Phon turned, gave her a beatific smile and said,

"That’s correct, Major. Two more minutes."

"Don’t tell me, you’re here for scientific interest." Jadzia said, witheringly, and Kira laughed.

"That’s an interesting remark, coming from the station’s science officer. I have to do Starfleet CPD if I want to be able to swap shifts with a Starfleet officer."

"Well, that’s dumb," Jadzia said, rolled a strip of paper into a ball and threw it at the back of T’Phon’s head.

Kira sighed. “How did you even make it through the initiate programme? Unless” - she grinned - “it was Jadzia who was the studious one, and the Dax symbiont is some kind of delinquent.”

"Lieutenant Commander Dax, Major Kira." T’Phon gave them both a calm smile. "I presume you are ready to present to the class. What form of transaction will you be demonstrating?"

Kira rolled her eyes and said, “I think I shall be offering a Trill science officer for auction” - and looked on blithely as Jadzia started making the hand signal for _fall back! Call for reinforcements!_ “Shall we start the bidding at one strip of gold-pressed latinum?”

Ironically, Kira thought, it was only because of Starfleet CPD that she knew there was a standard emergency hand signal for _I will get you for this if it’s the last thing I do._


End file.
